Method for making paper having the appearance of handmade paper



Get 16 1923. 1 J. H. A. ARMSTRONG METHOD FOR MAKING PAPER HAVING THE APPEARANCE OF HAND MADE PAPER ATTORNEYS.

Patented Oct. 16, 1923.

UNITED STATES PATENT errce.

JAMES H. A. ARMSTRONG, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB TO WRITING PAPER COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

METHOD FOR MAKING PAPER HAVING THE APPEARANCE 0F HANDMADE PAPER.

- Application filed October 10, 1921. Serial No. 506,873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES H. A. ARM- STRONG, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing at 20 Claremont Avenue, Holyoke, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Methods for Making Paper Having the Appearance of Handmade Paper, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for making paper, and has for its object more particularly the manufacture of a high grade paper having all of the characteristics and appearance of hand-made paper. A distinguishing feature of hand-made paper consists of the irregular feathered edge which borders all four sides of the sheet and known as a deckle edge, and which is produced in consequence of the particular method employed in making the paper by hand, one sheet at a time. Paper has been made on machines in a continuous web with deckle edges along the lateral sides of the sheet, but this paper obviousl when out from the web into separate individual sheets, is readily distinguished from hand-made paper by reason of the absence of the deckle edges at all the bordering sides of the sheet.

In the carrying out of the present invention, the paper is made by forming a continuous web of pulp preferably on a cylinder machine provided with the usual deckles for producing deckle edges along the lateral edges of the web. During the process of its formation, the web is rendered more easily frangible along predetermined lines of division, whereby at certain stages of the process and operation of the machine, it may be ruptured along said lines of division in a manner to pull out said ruptured edge into the attenuated and irregular form of a deckle edge. Individual sheets will then be produced havin deckle edges at all four sides thereof similar to the hand-made sheet.

The preferred method and apparatus for carrying out the invention will now be described, which apparatus is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a view somewhat diagrammatic of certain well known elements of a paper making machine'arranged for carrying out the present process;

Fig. 2 is an elevation of the rotating cylinder on which the pulp is formed;(

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail throu h a portion of the makin screen on the cylinder with a layer of pa p formed thereon.

Referring more particularly to the drawngs, the paper making machine illustrated is of the cylinder type wherein 1 indicates the pulp vat in which the forming cylinder 2 is rotatably mounted in the usual way. The peripheral wall of said cylinder is cov ered by a fine Wire mesh or making screen t upon which the web of pulp is formed durng the rotation of the cylinder, which screen is securely fastened thereto in any suitable l referably fixed to the surface of the makmg screen 4 and projecting upwardly from the surface thereof are a series of strips or bars 10 of imperforate material, such as metal. These strips 10 may be disposed in various spaced relationship upon the surface of the making screen and are for the purpose of producing deep indentations in the layer of pulp being formed on the screen, as shown in Fig. 3. The indentations thus produced constitute lines of division between individual sheets of the pulp web, along which said pulp web may be ruptured at a -later stage of the process in a manner'to produce the deckle edges.

The dimensions and cross-sectional contour of said indenting strips 10 should preferably be such as to produce lines of division in said layer of pulp which will taper gradually to the thinnest part of said pulp layer, and thus avoid any sharp out line of demarcation between the individual sheets when the same are afterwards pulled apart or ruptured along said lines of division. Indenting strips of broader base than height and of the general cross-sectional contour, as shown 1n Fig. 3, have been found to successfully accomplish the above result. It will be observed particularly that the indenting strips do not project entirely through the layer of pulp, but are always intended to leave a thin, fragile, bridging connection between the individual sheets, so that said pulp may be handled in the machine as a continuous web. In addition to the indenting strips 10, the cylinder 2 has mounted thereon the side deckles 11 which are of the usual character for determining mnarcan 15 and around suitable the width of'the pulp being formed onthe screen, and which (produce the deckle edges along the longitu inal side edges of said web.

It will be noted by referring to Fig. 2 that the transversely arranged indenting strips are distorted or bowed slightly at their centers so as to incline from the circumferential edges of said cylinder toward the central circumferential line thereof. The above mentioned distortional inclination is in a direction reyerse to that .of the rotation of the cylinder whereby the central portion of each transverse line of division formed on the pulp web, as it leaves the cylinder will la behind slightly for a purpose hereinafter described.

The couch roll 11' is mounted inthe usual way to coact with the cylinder 2 and an endless bottom felt 12 passes around said couch roll for taking up the web of pulp in a continuous manner from the cylinder 2. The bottom felt 12 runs from the couch roll successively through pairs of press rolls 14 and uide rolls and tension rolls 13, so as finafiy to return to the couch roll. In addition to the bottom felt 12, an endless top felt 16 running around suitable guide rolls and tension rolls 17 is arranged to engage the upper side of the pulp web and pass therewith successively through press rolls 14 and 15. The employment of the top and bottom felts 12 and 16 in engagement with opposite sides of the p ulpweb as it passes through the several pairs of press rolls serves to provide a free outlet at both sides of the web for the escape of water as it is progressively pressed out of said pulp during the passage of the latter successively through the said pairs of press rolls. The two pairs of press rolls 14 and are preferably arranged, as shown, to carry the pulp web with its top and bottom felts in substantially a horizontal line through the wet end of the machine.

It will be understood that the press rolls 14; and 15 have the usual/crowned cylindrical walls, common to all pressure rolls of this character, so as to insure a uniform degree of pressure throughout the width of the pulp web. This crowned formation of said press rolls in paper making machines causes, as is well known, the center of the web to advance therethrough slightly faster than the lateral edges thereof. A result of this slight acceleration of the web along its center line in the present machine is to bring the trans-' verse indented lines of division of said web forwardly at the centers thereof and thus straighten them out from the distortionpreviously mentioned, so that whenthe pulp web leaves the press rolls 15, the transverse lines of division run straight across the web and at right angles to the sides thereof.

This action insures that the individual the bottom felt and squeeze rolls 19 for. the

top felt. A rotating brush 20 is arranged to engagethe top felt 16 so as to continually raise the nap on the surface of said felt which is presented to said web. A cleaning spray 21 is also provided for the top felt 16, and cleaning spray 22 and beater 23 is also provided for the bottom felt as shown.

The pulp web indicated at P in Fig. 1, after passing through the press rolls at the wet end of the machine, is lead from the lower felt 12 to an apron 25 and then through breaking rolls and 35'. These breaking rolls may consist of two lower rolls 35 and one upper roll 35 arranged in such a relation as to give the web first a sharp bend in one direction and then a sharp bend in the other direction which will cause the web to separate at the lines of division and be carried along by the apron 25 asseparate sheets. During this rupturing or pulling apart of the sheets the pulp is still moist and soft to thereby favor the ready separa tion of the sheets along the indented lines in a, manner to have a deckle edge. The endless felt or apron 25 is guided in the usual manner over rolls 26 so as to run in wrapping engagement with a portion of each drying cylinder and in coaction with a top felt 36 to carry the separate sheets of pulp into close proximity with said drying cylinder for being gradually dried thereb A separate top felt 36 guided over rolls 3i, as shown, is provided for each 0 linder to coact with the endless bottom elt 25 in carrying the separate sheets from one drier cylinder to the other.

After passing around said drying cylinders, the separate'sheets are then delivered between top and bottom engaging, felts or aprons 28 and 29 respectively, which felts receive and guide said sheets into and out of a sizing bath 80. Suitable guide rolls 31 are arranged to guide the travel of said bottom felts in and out of said sizing bath in the manner shown in Fig. 1. Further guide rolls 32 are provided for the bottom felt 29 and guide T0113 33 for the top felt 28. The

separate sheets are finally delivered by the felts 28 and 29 to a receiving table 34;, from which said sheets may be taken through the various finishing operations such as drying, and plating. It will be found that the sheets torn from the web of pulp in the manner described will have thin, irregular, feathered edges like the deckled edges of hand-made paper.

What is claimed is:

In a paper making machine, in combination, a pulp vat, a rotating cylinder comprismg a making screen having spaced apart imperforate strips projecting from the suri it passes successively through said press rolls,

breaker rolls for receiving said pulp web after passing through said press rolls, said breaker rolls actin frictionally to pull said bottom felts for receiving said divided sheets of pulp from said breaker rolls and carryin the same around said drier cylinder or cy inders, a sizing bath, and top and bottom contacting felts for receiving said divided sheets of pulp from said drier cylinder or cylinders and carrying the same in and out of said sizing bath.

web apart into in ividual sheets along the a indented lines of division thereof, one or more drier cylinders, and coacting top and In testimony whereof I have afi'ixed my 2 signature.

JAMES H. A. ARMSTRONG. 

